Friday, December 24, 2004

Travel and Get a Degree

Arun Temple glows pink in the setting sun. Sand barges slide silently down the Chao Praya River, long tail boats race around them. I sit in a small cafe with a beautiful view of Bangkok's river: laptop on, notebook open, pen ready. Time for class.

I am enrolled in a Masters program through Shenandoah University's distance learning program, studying Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Armed with a laptop and notebook, I can attend class anywhere in the world.

When people think of study abroad they usually think of traditional student exchange programs. Distance learning, however, is a powerful alternative to that approach - one which offers maximum flexibilty. It is now possible to earn a degree from an accredited University while living in Kathmandu, or teaching in Prague, or exploring South America.

This does not imply that distance learning programs are easy. They are not. An accredited program requires the same dedication and effort as an on campus program. In addition, most distance degrees demand a high level of initiative and self-motivation.

Extra rewards balance the extra demands. Distance programs are ideal for self-directed, independent students. They allow students to tailor the course schedule and requirements to fit individual needs and are perfect for nomadic individuals who wish to see the world and further their education at the same time.

How Distance Programs Work
Shenandoah University mails videotaped (DVD) lectures to each student at the beginning of the semester. Once received, students are responsible for viewing all classes and completing assignments by the semester deadline.
With a laptop and a pair of headphones, students can view class DVDs within view of the Eifell Tower, or London's Big Ben, or Bankgok's Grand Palace. They can move abroad and settle in a foreign city, or can remain on the move - traveling around the world while earning a degree.

Most programs use a software package called "Blackboard" to design their courses. Professors use the software to post assignments, create discussion forums, display materials and articles, add links to assigned readings, and create online tests. Each student has an individual Blackboard account, which contain their current courses. The program is easy to use and soon becomes second nature.

Written assignments, such as research papers, are submitted electronically - via email or Blackboard. Grades are likewise posted on the Internet. Final exams take one of two forms. The first approach is to administer paper finals which are observed and certified by a proctor (usually an embassy official or foreign university professor). The other approach is to use timed, online final exams.

Finally, most distance programs require short campus visits. Some have intensive summer semesters while others require only a visit to defend a thesis. Shenandoah University, for example, requires all Masters students to make one on-campus visit before graduating.

The Benefits of Distance Learning
There are many. Time flexibility is one. Distance programs allow students to "attend" classes and complete assignments any time of the day or night. It's easy to schedule schoolwork around a job or travel.
The flexibility of distance learning provides unique travel possibilities. The minimum requirements for most programs are a) a means of viewing DVDs and b) access to the internet. With these two requirements met, students can study from any internet accessible point in the world. For example, last semester I took my laptop to the island of Koh Tao in southern Thailand. I dove the islands' coral reefs during the day, and worked on the degree by night. Three months later I visited the mountains of northern Thailand while studying for final exams. I rented a motorcycle in Chang Mai and explored when the sun was up, then returned to the city in the evening to study and take exams.

Most of my time, however, has been spent in Bangkok, where I teach private English lessons and work as a substitute teacher in my spare time. With laptop in tow, I've studied in a cafe next to the Grand Palace, viewed lectures while watching boats ply the Chao Praya river, and written papers while relaxing in Chinatown.

Despite the rich travel experiences, I have saved money by studying in a distance program. Thailand is much cheaper than America. Monthly rent for my apartment is only $60. Furthermore, tuition rates for distance programs are often cheaper, as they do not have the built-in costs of on-campus infrastructure (activity fees, fitness centers, computer halls, sports facilities, roads, health centers, etc..).

Finally, distance degrees provide unique academic opportunities. As a distance learner, its possible to do internships with foreign companies, observe classes in foreign universities, and explore foreign cultures. As part of my program, I have completed internships at Thailand's Thammasat University and at the AUA Language School in Bangkok.

For those who are adventurous and self-motivated, distance learning opens a wealth of travel and learning possibilities.

[See the Distance Learning links on the sidebar for more information.]

"Poets are those who have made a profession and a lifestyle of being in touch with their bliss... Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they'd be. Always go where you want to go -- where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling then stay with it, don't let anyone throw you off." --Joseph Campbell

"When you're on a journey, and the end keeps getting further and further away, then you realize that the real end is the journey." --Karlfried Graf Durckheim

Links

Hobopoets & Freedom Fighters (Blogs & Websites)

Hakim BeyFantastic- The anarchist-sufi prophet of Hobopoets! Visit this site!!

PlarkA traveler and hater of work.... nice thoughts on living a meaningful life.

Pupil in DenialThe writings of a woman who is staunchly resistent in ever parting with her lovelylife of an undergrad slash part-time barista which is everfaithful in churning quickmoney to satisfy her wickedwanderlust!

"Because of the dogma of workerism, unemployment is a problem rather than the boon to humanity that it should be." --Len Bracken

"Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them.... Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually, though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have." -- Henry David Thoreau

Rolling TimesTONS of information on RVs and RVing... much of it applicable to van/car living.

"Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor" -- Henry David Thoreau

"A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their violence for the promise of a small increase in life span. In effect, the head of the house becomes the youngest child.... I did not want to surrender fierceness for a small gain in yardage. My wife married a man; I saw no reason why she should inherit a baby... And in my own life I am not willing to trade quality for quantity." --John Steinbeck, Travels With Charly

"The negative refusal of Home is "homelessness", which most consider a form of victimization, not wishing to be forced into nomadology. But "homelessness" can in a sense be a virtue, an adventure- so it appears, at least, to the huge international movement of the squatters, our modern hobos." -Hakim Bey

Spiritual

Vipassana MeditationFantastic meditation courses all over the world (free)!! I HIGHLY recommend them.

"Act as if you were already free... take the risk, dance before you calcify."-- Hakim Bey

We must constantly remind ourselves (since our culture won`t do it for us) that this monster called WORK remains the precise & exact target of our rebellious wrath, the one single most oppressive reality we face. - Hakim Bey

Poetry, Writing, & Art

Cafe PressA fantastic self-publishing site. No upfront costs. The wave of the future for DIY publishers.

Written RoadJen Leo's travel writing site. Very good and very informative.

Arthur RimbaudA glorious site with poems and a biography of the restless mad genius.

Aldous HuxleyA collection of links and info on the great writer-philospher.

"In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness" -- Henry David Thoreau

"Altough we all realize that monotony is boring, almost every form of industrial work- banking, accounting, mass-producing, service- is monotonous, and most people are paid for simply putting up with monotony..." --Alan Watts

"And what is the nature of a wasteland? It is a land where everybody is living an inauthentic life, doing as other people do-- doing as you're told, with no courage for your own life. To live an authentic life, Take your wisdom from your own experience. Because in thinking, the majority is always wrong." --Joseph Campbell

"All societies tremble when the scornful aristocracy of the tramps, the inaccessibles, the uniques, the rulers over the ideal, and the conquerors of the nothing resolutely advances." --Hakim Bey

Nomadism & Travel

BootsnAllIndependent travel stories from around the world. Contribute your own.

World HumTravel dispatches from a shrinking planet. Good travel writing site.

AjarnThis is the largest and most comprehensive website for English teaching in Thailand. Has an extensive job board, plus general information about living in Thailand

Stickman's BangkokAn in-depth site with practical information about living and working in Bangkok. Cocky, cynical and negative- but the basic info is good.

TealitSite for teaching English and living in Taiwan, including a job board.

Another year is gone -A travel hat on my head,Straw sandals on my feet--Basho

"If there's one thing I hate, it's the word "safety". We live in a civilization of safety, in which we are eventually cocooned from all danger, that is to say, from all experience. What we are left with is a vegetable plugged into a computer, who never leaves the room, like a hideous vision of a William Gibson novel. We would be well advised to rediscover risk." --Hakim Bey

"Remember above all things that to write is not difficult, not painful, that it comes out of you with ease, that you can whip up a little tale in no time, that when you are sincere about it, that when you want to impress a truth, it is not difficult, not painful, but easy, graceful, full of smooth power, as if you were a writing machine with a store of literature that is boundless, enormous, endless, rich. For it is true; this is so. Do not forget it in your gloomier moments. Make your stuff warm, drive it home American-wise, don't mind critics, don't mind the stuffy academic theses of scholars, they don't know what they are talking about, they're way off the track, they're cold; you're warm, you're red hot, you can write all day, you know what you know...." -- Jack Kerouac